Mass Effect Aftershock
by James631
Summary: The galactic war with the Reapers has ended thanks to the sacrifice of one man. Now that he is gone it is up to all of those who remain behind to pick up the pieces in trying move on with their lives without him, again. Their paths separating once more as duties to the healing worlds beckon for their service. The future infinite and unkind but at least this time life has a future.


I started playing this series after they release the package deal in one set which was well after the whole DLC ending came about. I have say that I love these characters. Each and everyone one with their own unique backstory. Able to shape them in different ways based on how a player...well played the game. Too bad about Shepard. All that investment time in it and I don't even get to save him? Alas, but I can say a few things about his friends. So enjoy. I own nothing. Everything apart from the actual story belongs to Bioware and the likes.

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**Aftershock**

Chapter One

"Stop moving around so damn much," bellowed the old merc. "Every ounce of sunlight hitting this beach is directed right at my face thanks to that bloody armor of yours. And I've only got one good eye left."

The grumbling went unnoticed before Garrus' companion resorted to throwing things to get his attention. His feet planted into the sand as he was bated to, with all attention still pressed on the one question everyone had: where is Shepard?

"Hmm. There should have been some news by now." Crossed his arms and stared onto the horizon as if to intimate it in giving an answer. A new find of bodies turned up yesterday at ground zero where Garrus saw his friend for the last time. And like a good soldier Garrus couldn't rest until the dead was properly seen to before he allow himself to return home.

"Will you get off it then? That blue butt doctor is all over the dig. If she can find Prothean shit still perfectly preserved after all this time, she can find Shepard's body." Zaeed leaned back in his folding chair and popped another drink to quench a growing thirst that was starting to bug him.

"I should be there." Garrus shook his head. "Eight weeks under all of that and-"

"All you'd find are smelly corpses!"

Garrus snapped at Zaeed with evil intent. The man was purposely making every effort to kill all hope the turian carried for Shepard turning up alive. As if time that was passing by wasn't doing a good enough job already to rob him of hope; now one of the Commander's own was joining in?

Be so easy to walk up and kill the relax vermin right then and there and no one would say anything of it. Fact that no one was on the beach apart for them was hardly the meaning. Zaeed was a notorious mercenary and a skilled gunman when things needed killing. Yet for all his accomplishments, not even the name he made for himself traveling with Shepard mounted to much more than what a few hundred credits couldn't fabricate.

Garrus had already checked into it and had plans to start snuffing out several individuals who were tarnishing the name Shepard with their stories. Zaeed could easily be one of them on that list and afterwards no one would be the wiser.

Still…

"That's better," Zaeed remarked when Garrus finally sat down in his own folding chair; as uncomfortable as one would like. "It'd work better if you shed some armor off. You could at least lie back without the back end falling in on you."

"We're on call." Garrus felt for his weapon still safely connected to his backside; never wanted to be far away from it. "Besides, I don't see you shedding anything."

"Probably because I don't weight a ton and have you looked at my face?" the merc pointed. "Save the world some trouble and keep the rest of the grim sight of me to myself."

It was a small laugh but enough of a reward for Garrus's mind to wonder elsewhere. The idea of seeing any more of Zaeed than his chewed up head made the alien cringe. The merc tossed him a cold one from a cooler they had brought with them to bring a swift end to that. They finished four before either of them spoke.

"So what'do ya make of all these husks wondering around? They make good target practice but not much else. Think they survived that _magic_ wave?"

"No." Garrus shook his head firmly if only to convince himself of what he was saying. "Every AI died that day. Anything left standing is probably some pirates or idiots or maybe both who are playing around with the Reaper tech lying all over the place."

"Suits me. Retirement is getting awfully boring without something worth shooting at. Got one right in the kisser before my last drink was dry the other day.

Bastard though he could sneak up on me. "

"Huh." The former C-Sec officer scratched his head. "That's something me and Shepard were talking about on the Citadel.

Or at least I was talking about. Never thought much for the water but relaxing somewhere on some beach for retirement looking out onto the horizon with nothing more to do on our plates; it was something to think about."

"Staring at some Reaper dead in the water like that one?" Zaeed pointed. "That part of your little fantasy too?"

Garrus looked at the downed enemy collapsed over to its side in the distant water. Gave what could only pass as a smile from his species as compared to humans.

"It adds flavor to the mix."

The Reaper was a dead thing neither one could really grasp at; enormous as some of the tallest buildings with enough firepower to turn an entire Council fleet to space dust. So many lives lost to just one of them in mere hours is damning to say the least. And to see each and every one of these things as lifeless as this one in the water was gratifying beyond words.

Course after the sixteen Earth survey teams went in to investigate the spoils of war, only four persons managed to come back out alive. Each out of their minds trying to pull their own flesh off. Claimed they could still hear the screams of ghosts in their ears and an overwhelming voice of the Reapers containing them. The survivors promptly died. After that, the Alliance as well as the rest of the galaxy deemed these creatures too dangerous to be explored right now.

Not until they could find some way to confirm that the Reapers were truly dead dead.

Now was damage control and bringing what remained of galactic civilization back into order. To take stock in what has been lost and gained. Mourn the dead and spit on the defeated. Figure out how to get things back to normal if that were even possible.

Everyone so frightened of the future now didn't even have a working council or its space station that orbited in shambles around Earth to turn to for guidance. The situation was so grim that the two Reaper fighting veterans could do nothing more than sit back and relax.

"This is too damn boring!" The merc threw his beverage at the sea. "Strap me to a Reaper corpse and hurl me into the sun if you like but I refuse to waste another second on this damn beach!"

"Agreed." They stood proudly. "I'm sure we can find some privateers who need some gunning down out there."

"Now that's what I'm talking about," Zaeed punched the turian's shoulder. "Guns like ours don't get put down to rust. They get stole by some jackoff who got a lucky shot at us while we weren't looking."

Garrus offered his drink in toast. "Past experience?"

"Shut it." Zaeed pulled out another cold one and smacked it against his friend's. They drank hearty as any man would.

"There's something missing out of all this." Zaeed scratched at his ear. "Oh yeah."

Within seconds of pulling it out of his pocket and with a wicked grin stretching out over his face, Zaeed pressed down happily on a button that set a massive explosion off on their distant scenery object. A big ball of flame and twisted metal that was a Reaper for anyone to admire from any angle. The shockwave and heat was intense and threatened to topple both even at its distance.

"Could almost cry after seeing something like that, you know?" He sniffed. "Damn perfect."

"Maybe," Garrus pointed out. "But you failed to put any kind of damage on the submerged side. I mean if it were still alive the Reaper could still very well be in combat shape.

Works of a rank amateur."

"Rank amateur!" Zaeed caught up with his departing adversary. "You know how look it took me to set that whole mess up? Huh?!

Nearly all damn two weeks!"

"And yet you still couldn't manage to kill it properly. Wasn't even moving."

"I'm gon'na shot you."

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To be continued…


End file.
